Hawaii-Friday

Our kayaking tour guide had mentioned La Perouse Bay as a great place to go in the morning to see dolphins, and driving down there gives you a chance to drive through the most recent lava flow on Maui which is about 200 years old. So Friday morning we decided to go check it out.

 When we first saw it as we were driving out, we couldn't tell if it was tilled soil or lava rock. But when it went on and on we realized it must be the lava flow. It's pretty cool.

 You can see up on the side of the mountain where the lava erupted from.

 We didn't see any dolphins, and the beach was more rocky than we had expected so we didn't want to go swimming just then. We looked at the tide pools and saw some bright yellow fish swimming around and lots of tiny little snails Annie would have loved to see--she loves rocks and shells and tiny things.

Since we were in our swimsuits already we stopped at a beach on the way back to Kihei and tried out some boogie boarding. The lifeguards put up signs saying "Dangerous shorebreak" but as we are ignorant land lubbers, and we saw lots of other people out playing in the ocean, and a lifeguard real close we figured we were fine. We had lots of fun riding in on the waves.

After a little while the waves got bigger and after one big, churning wave, we decided to rest on the beach for a while. As we got away from the surf we heard the lifeguard on his megaphone saying something along the lines of "The conditions are dangerous. Definitely not for beginners. Most common injuries from dangerous shorebreak conditions are broken limbs or broken necks...." Oops. Glad we were ok and were able to have some fun without injuries.

We went back to shower (and wash a bucket-full of sand down the drain), then headed a short drive away to the Maui Tropical Plantation which has a tram to see all they grow, and a few other attractions.

The reason we were there, though was to go ziplining. It was my mom's idea. The spirit of adventure really had gotten into her.

There were two other people who went on the ziplines with us: Gloria and her dad, Shin. They come into play later in this story...
There were lots of cool plants on the plantation.

 This was the first time we saw a tree like this, but there were many around the island we noticed later. The branches start to extend roots down to take advantage of the rain, then the roots grow more branches, and the branches grow more roots, etc. until the tree is huge. We saw some huge ones on Sunday.

There were also chickens all over the place on the island, running wild and free. Like Hei Hei on Moana. It was funny to see that that was really how it is on the islands.

They had pineapples growing on the plantation. It takes a pineapple 2 or 3 years to grow.

This view was a bit disconcerting--it's always good to realize your common sense is still in tact and jumping from a 40 foot tower inspires a healthy fear.

Mom was a little nervous and wondered what she was thinking when she decided she wanted to do this.

After the first tower the nerves fell away a bit and we got a little more daring.

We got to do 5 ziplines and it was lots of fun.

On the last platform we felt a few raindrops, but it didn't really start raining. As we drove away from the plantation, the rain made for a pretty picture.

That night we went to a luau in Lehaina, which was about 30 minutes away.

 They had people selling their wares which included really pretty carvings and jewelry. I took some pictures so Jacob's dad (who is a great carver) could enjoy some of the artwork.

Savannah and I tried our hand at learning a hula dance. It was fun, but we aren't going to be professional hula dancers anytime soon.

After looking around for a while, we went to find our assigned seats only to find Gloria and Shin (from ziplining) and Shin's wife were seated at our table, as well. It was a fun dinner. The other two at our table were fun, too. We enjoyed dinner and got some good tips about the Road to Hana, which we decided to go on the following day based off of their recommendations.

Dinner was a buffet with all sorts of stuff, including octopus, poi, and other Hawaiian dishes.

It was mostly pretty good. There were only a couple things I didn't care for, but I didn't have room to go back for seconds, unfortunately.

The show included lots of dancing and the history of the islands. It was fun to watch. A luau is a definite must-do for going to Hawaii.

Hawaii-Thursday

For Mother's Day, my brother, Todd gifted his wife Savannah, our mom, and me with a trip to Hawaii. (Marie was invited, but couldn't make it.) It was such a fun trip.

 Mom and I flew to SLC, then to LAX (worst airport ever), then to Maui. ^This is our first picture in Hawaii just after landing.

Savannah had arrived before us, so she had already gotten the rental car and we were out of there pretty quick. She took us to a beach right by the airport for our first beach/ocean view in Hawaii.

 Let the adventures begin!

We stayed at an airbnb condo at the Kealia Resort at the very north end of Kihei. It was perfect. This picture was taken from our back porch.

 If you follow that sidewalk down about 30 yards you are at the beach and 5 steps further you are in the ocean.

We went to bed still on Mountain Standard Time and woke up really early, Hawaii time. It gave the two runners (not me) a chance for a run on the beach and a relaxing morning before we went on our first adventure: kayaking.

 Savannah got her very own kayak, while Mom and I shared. The weather was perfect with no wind and a very calm ocean, so it was perfect for us first-time kayakers.

 I thought I would be sore the next day from using muscles I don't usually use, but I wasn't really at all.

 We kayaked to a few places our guide knew were good to find sea life and finally settled on one where we dropped anchor and put on our snorkeling gear. There were sea turtles swimming so close, just chilling by the coral reef.

 This guy was drifting so close to us that we had to back up. The current was pushing him towards us and apparently it is against the law to touch a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle, as they're protected, but it looked like he was trying to touch us.

 The ocean floor was pretty close here and we could see some cool fish, pokey sea urchins (or something) and cool brain-like coral.

 It really is a whole different world down there. So cool!

Snorkeling was so fun, though I kept getting salt water in my mouth. I would dive down to see something under water, and forget that I couldn't breathe like normal down there. Apparently I need more practice.

When we got tired we hopped back in our kayaks and paddled back to where we had begun. It was a super fun experience.

Our early morning caught up with us, so we went back to our place for a nap, then headed over to Lehaina for some Shave Ice and to find some cold medicine. I got a scratchy throat the day before we left for Hawaii. Thankfully the congestion held off until after we went snorkeling, but it hit pretty hard that afternoon. Once the medicine kicked in, though, it helped a lot. And the cold was a lot quicker than I had worried it would be. A lot of prayers and in a day and a half I was past the worst of it.

 The Shave Ice (not shaved ice) was delicous. And a lot bigger than we thought it would be. But it was perfect as the heat was picking up and the humidity was a lot more than us Arizonans are used to.

From Lehaina we continued on around the west end of the island to go see the Nakalele blowhole where water shoots up a little hole in the lava rock as the surf pounds the rocks.

 You can see the blowhole shooting up water in these two pictures.

 The view towards the east from here was beautiful.

 Little did we know that the road continuing on in that direction (instead of turning around and heading back to Lehaina) was insane. Most of it was one lane with a cliff down to the ocean on the left side and a mountain rising sharply on the right side. It was very curvy, too. And when I say it was one lane, I mean one car with maybe a foot or two on each side. It was nerve-wracking watching ahead for cars coming the other direction. Savannah drove it like a champion, though. And eventually we made it back to civilization and ate at Da Kitchen in Kahului. It was good food, but I wasn't feeling great because of my cold, so I was more than ready to get back to our place and crash for the night.

Field trip

Megan is at that fun age of screaming and tantrums. Our family rule is you can scream in the bathroom or your bedroom, so when she (or the other kids) are screaming or throwing a tantrum we escort them to the bathroom until they're done. At Grandma and Grandpa's house last week while Grandpa was babysitting she was sent to the bathroom to finish screaming and when he came back to check on her this is what he found:

 Today when I got home from a church meeting, I found her asleep on the bathroom floor at our house. She doesn't take naps most days, but I find it very amusing that when she really needs one (as manifested by her tantrum-throwing), the bathroom is the only place that a nap will happen.

Last week I got to go on a field trip with Rachel's class. My parents are angels and babysit often so I can volunteer in Rachel's and Annie's classes weekly, and go on fun things like field trips. I appreciate them so much.

Rachel and her two best friends got to be in a group. Daryne and Madison are pretty fun.

 We went to the International Wildlife Museum. Rachel may have turned into a goat for part of the trip.

 There was one room with art made out of buttons. It was amazing. This bear was all out of buttons shaped around plastic containers that were recycled.

 A fun time was had by all. :)

Young Women happenings

In August the Tucson LDS Temple is going to be dedicated. We are getting pretty excited about it. There is an open house where it will be open to the public June 3-24. After it is dedicated, it will be a place where church members in good standing are allowed in to perform special ordinances like being sealed as an eternal family rather than just "until death do us part," or baptisms for our deceased ancestors who didn't have a chance to be baptized while they were still alive. My kids have been looking forward to the temple as we've stopped by a few times during construction to see the progress. Megan talks often about "when the temple is done we can go inside!" And now it's almost time!

 I am extra blessed to be working in the Young Women program at church right now. It is an exciting (and super busy) time. In conjunction with the temple dedication there is a cultural celebration that the youth in the area get to participate in. It involves a lot of singing and dancing and highlights some of the history/cultural ties of the church in our area. We are starting to practice next week and it will take up most of our weekly activities for the next few months. With Girls' Camp coming up in July, as well, we have had a busy month or so with Girls Camp kickoff, Cultural Celebration kickoff, ward YW campout to do fire/cooking certifications that we can't do at camp, all on top of our regular weekly activities. But I'm happy to be a part of it.

And actually, now that I think about it, our YW campout turned into an un-campout.

 We went to set up tents to claim our campsite that morning, then were planning on returning in the evening with the YW. The wind was so strong we decided to just stake them down, then when we returned in the evening the girls could put the poles in and erect the tents fully. But as we were almost done staking down all the tents some ominous clouds had rolled in and it looked like it would rain. We decided the tents would fend off water better if they were erect, so we put the poles in one and as soon as we were done a gust of wind came, ripped out half the stakes, and turned half the tent inside the other half. We gave up on the poles and went with our original plan, leaving them just staked down.
When we got home I checked the weather, and the wind wasn't supposed to start dying down until 10:00, getting manageable around midnight. Besides the problems with the tents blowing around, we were worried about fires, since the Sawmill Fire was still burning south of Tucson, and we didn't want to start a new fire on the north side. Skipping the fire would thwart the whole purpose of our campout, which was to do the fire certification and camp cooking that can't happen at Girls' Camp (because of the cooking facilities, and because fire restrictions in the summer often don't allow for fires at Girls' Camp). All the preparation for the campout was already done by our awesome camp director and her assistant, but after much debate and discussion we decided to skip the camping part of it. Luckily one of the leaders had a great connection who had a farm with green grass and a big metal firepit that served our purposes just fine. We had a great evening out there, went home to sleep in our own beds (yay!), then got together in the morning to cook breakfast on camp stoves then head out on a nice in beautiful weather.

April

We recently got our floors downstairs redone. The carpet in the front room had been stained since we moved in, and the laminate in the kitchen/family room was starting to get some holes in it, so it was time to replace them. And as long as we were doing 2/3 of the downstairs, we figured we might as well do it all (except the laundry room and bathroom) and make it look nice. The guy who gave us an estimate on price told me it'd be 2-3 days. The installer laughed when I told him that's what I had been told. It took 9 days. Which wouldn't have been so bad if that's what I had been expecting, but it did throw a few plans for a loop.

 It was sure nice to be done and have our floors look beautiful and our house back to ourselves. And in moving everything downstairs I actually got a lot of decluttering and cleaning done, which was a bonus.

 Annie, Ryan, and Megan have been taking swim lessons for a bit over a month. The session just ended and Ryan and Annie have made great progress. Annie can swim freestyle across the pool, and is starting to get side breathing down. Ryan can swim well as long as he remembers to keep his eyes down--when he tries to look forward his feet drop and he stops making any progress. But he can swim across the pool short ways really well, and could swim the long way if he were a little less nervous when it got to the deep end.

  Megan is super comfortable in the water, and I think if her teacher would push her a little, she would be swimming. She can float on her back pretty much all on her own. And when she's swimming with me I can let her go near the edge and she'll kick with her face in until she reaches the side.

We got to go see Annie's egg drop project. Her egg survived. She had the egg in a butter container which was taped to her umbrella.

 Here's her class with their egg drop projects.

 Speaking of school, Annie finished her Reading Fair Project. She did it on Junie B. Jones and the Stupid, Smelly Bus. She did a good job.